


Shape of Heart

by PracticalSuccubus



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Demon!Akira AU, M/M, Shapeshifting Demon, akira loves his human a lot, and his human loves him, cuddling near the end, happy feral demon boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:27:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23274730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PracticalSuccubus/pseuds/PracticalSuccubus
Summary: Even after everything they've been through, it seems that there are still things Ryuji didn't know about Akira. When he finds out, though, the shock sends Akira running.
Relationships: Kurusu Akira/Sakamoto Ryuji
Comments: 2
Kudos: 143





	Shape of Heart

There was always something off about Akira. Ryuji could just never put his finger on what it was. There was also the fact that he never seemed to get angry. Even when Akechi had shot Okumura, and their team had taken the blame, Akira had kept a level head. Yet, Ryuji also noted that at that time, Akira’s eyes seemed to be glowing red instead of them being their silvery grey color. He had wanted to ask him about it, but, when he had approached him to talk about it, Akira’s eyes were back to normal. He had ended up stumbling over his words, and had asked him something completely unrelated. 

He grew to just accept the odd feeling when it came to Akira. After all, there were new feelings about the raven that were rising, and he couldn’t focus on something that had always been there. 

They had confessed to each other on Valentine’s day. The confession had been a bit awkward, with neither of the boys wanting to overstep any boundaries in fear of taking things too far. But, after the awkwardness had passed, both of them had been ecstatic that the other felt the same way. And, when it was revealed that Akira would be staying, they had celebrated with a giant sleepover in Akira’s attic. That was Sojiro’s celebration present for Akira, outright giving him the attic in Le Blanc. Many kisses had been exchanged between Akira and Ryuji that night. 

It was nearing summer again. It was the last day of school before the break, when Ryuji was late getting to Le Blanc. 

Akira was trying to be rational with his thoughts, but there was a tiny voice that refused to be silenced, saying that something happened, and Ryuji was hurt. He was resisting the urge to shift and go check for him so much. He didn’t like shifting too much, so he suppressed it as much as he could. After all, what would his friends, more importantly his boyfriend, think if they found out he wasn’t human? 

Two hours later, and Akira was just about to decide ‘Fuck it’ and shift, when Ryuji walked into his room. Well, less walked, more limped. He was covered from head to toe in bruises, and his bottom lip was busted, a line of blood going from his lip down his chin. 

“H-Hey….sorry I’m late,” the blond apologized. Seeing Ryuji like this, and with the timeframe he had been gone, Akira could feel his anger rising. He gently pulled his boyfriend close, and wiped away the blood from his chin. 

There it was again, Ryuji noted. Akira’s eyes were now blood red. 

“H-Hey man, you alright?” he asked, now a little nervous in Akira’s presence. It didn’t look too bad, did it?

“Who did this to you?” Akira asked in a low tone. A tone that Ryuji had never heard come from the raven. 

“J-Just some bullies. They were gangin’ up on another student, and I saw ‘em as I was headin’ over here. I couldn’t let them do that, man, so I followed ‘em. Luckily the student they were goin’ after ran away. Downside is, they took it out on me,” Ryuji said, trying to play it off casually. And yet, Akira’s eyes didn’t seem to be going back to normal. Instead, it looked like the color deepened, becoming more of a deep wine color. It threw Ryuji off, even more so when Akira suddenly shoved him away. 

“Ryuji. Get out.” he said in that low tone again. It sent a chill down Ryuji’s spine, yet instead of running away, he stepped towards his boyfriend. Akira took a step away from him. 

“What’s goin’ on?” Ryuji asked, holding his hand out slightly, as if Akira were about to suddenly pounce. 

“Get. Out. I don’t want to hurt you. Just get. Out.” Akira growled. Akira had legitimately growled at him. Every alarm in Ryuji’s head was going off, but despite that, he still took another step forward. Whatever was happening, he’d be there for his boyfriend. 

“Ryuji. Now. Get out. If you don’t, I-I’ll-” Akira broke himself off, grunting slightly. He gave Ryuji a look. His eyes were now wild-looking, and something seemed to be sprouting from his hair. “Just. You don’t have to leave. Just get out of my room. Now...!” Akira roared at him. Ryuji was taken aback by this. Akira had never yelled at him before, and he had never acted this way. 

“Alright, man, but if somethin’ happens, I’m comin’ right back,” Ryuji said. He gave Akira a look of concern as he left the room. He had just made it down the stairs, when an inhuman screech came from upstairs. Ryuji immediately turned back. 

“The hell was that?!” he exclaimed, running back up the stairs, despite everything telling him not to. He ran back inside Akira’s room, and froze. 

There, in front of him, floated a creature so different, Ryuji wasn’t even sure if it was Akira at first. Horns had sprouted out of his head, his skin was almost as white as paper, making his wine-colored eyes stand way out. A long tail came out of his backside, and ended in a spade shape. His hair was even crazier than it was before, and just as he had noted when he entered the room, Akira was *floating*. He was hovering at least a few feet off the ground, going back and forth as if he were pacing. 

“K….’Kira…?” Ryuji said softly, stepping into the room. Akira immediately turned to him, his eyes wide with….terror? Before Ryuji could do anything, Akira flew over to his window, and went through it, the glass breaking as he left. Ryuji ran over to the window, and looked in the direction Akira had gone, but the boy...demon? Was nowhere to be seen.  
~

“Okay, Ryuji. Say what happened again. Slowly,” Makoto said, leaning forward in thebooth in Le Blanc. After Akira’s disappearance, Ryuji had called the rest of their friends over. While they had immediately freaked out because of Ryuji’s injuries, Ryuji was quick to blurt out what had happened, and what he saw. He had repeated the entire scenario three times, and was frankly quite annoyed with Makoto wanting him to say it a fourth. 

“I already told you what happened!” he yelled. 

“Yes, but things don’t add up! Demons don’t exist, AKira isn’t one, and most importantly, Akira can’t fly,” Makoto exclaimed, slamming her hands down on the table. 

“I know what I saw. And, you’re doubting demons after everything we’ve seen together?!” Ryuji exclaimed. 

“It’s just….saying that Akira is a demon isn’t possible! We all know him, you especially. If he really were a demon, then-”

“Then where is he, Makoto?” Ryuji interrupted. Makoto blinked at Ryuji’s words. “If he didn’t just disappear like that, why did I call ya down here?! Why is there broken glass in his room?!” Makoto looked away from Ryuji. 

“So….assuming that Akira is a demon, and flew out the window like you said, we should look for him, then,” Ann said, trying to break the tension in the room. 

“Where would he go in such a state, though?” Yusuke asked. 

“I don’t think he wanted anyone to see him. He seemed scared that I did,” Ryuji said. 

“We’ll have to search places people don’t normally go, then,” Ann thought out loud. The group seemed to agree with this, and they split up to go and search for their missing leader. Makoto and Haru, Ann and Yusuke, and Ryuji and Futaba. Morgana had elected to stay at Le Blanc just in case. 

The three groups looked high and low, but no one had seen anything matching Akira’s description. That night, when Ryuji went home, his heart was heavy as he crawled into bed. 

Was this his fault? For showing up at Le Blanc all battered and bruised? For going up to check on his boyfriend?

His mind was full of these thoughts, and he didn’t know any answers. He slowly drifted into a dreamless sleep.  
~

Over the course of a week, Akira never once returned to Le Blanc.

One day, however, just as they were about to head out once more, two boys had run into Le Blanc. They were both injured, with open wounds. They had wild, fearful looks in their eyes as they tried to catch their breaths. Sojiro had brought out the first aid kit from behind the counter, and Ann had immediately gone to work dressing their open wounds. 

Ryuji recognized the two as the bullies that had hurt him the day Akira had run away. As Ann tended to them, he walked over to them.

“What are you two doing here? What happened to you?” he snapped. 

“S-Sakamoto-san. We…..We’re so sorry for what we did,”the one on the left said. 

“There...There was a demon, I swear! He….He came out of nowhere and attacked up! We made a break for it, and we don’t know if he started chasing us or what, but he was growling something about getting revenge for you,” the one of the right said. 

Akira. 

“Where was he?” Ryuji demanded. 

“We...We were over at the park. Like I said, he came outta nowhere. We don’t know if he chased up, but, I swear it was a demon!” the one of the right cried. Ryuji immediately left Le Blanc, and started running. 

If Akira was still there, he needed to go to him. To see him.  
~

That night, Ryuji went back home, yet again disheartened. If Akira had been at the park, like the bullies had said, he wasn’t there when Ryuji had arrived, and it broke his heart. 

He laid on his bed, and stared at the wall. Would Akira ever come back to him? He was worried sick about him. 

He was once again falling into a dreamless sleep, when there was a tapping on his window. Ryuji looked over, and he noticed deep red eyes staring back at him. 

Claws were tapping on his window. Fear initially shot through Ryuji, but then he remembered those eyes. 

Akira’s eyes…!

Ryuji shot out of bed, and ran to the window, opening it. As soon as it was opened, Ryuji was tackled to the floor by Akira, who started nuzzling his neck happily. As soon as he came back from being dazed from the tackle, Ryuji put his arms around Akira tightly. Akira started to place light, soft kisses all over Ryuji’s neck as his tail wrapped around Ryuji’s waist. 

“I’m so glad you’re here. I was so worried about ya, ‘Kira,” Ryuji said, burying his face in Akira’s hair. A sad trill came from the demon’s mouth, and when Ryuji pulled his face away to look at him, Akira was giving him sad puppy eyes. “I mean it, Akira. Not only me, but everyone was worried about ya,” Ryuji lightly scolded. Akira whimpered sadly, and started to nuzzle Ryuji again. 

Being in his demon form for so long, without a break, had fogged his mind. He usually wouldn’t spend so long in this form, but after Ryuji had seen him like this, he didn’t know what would’ve happened had he stuck around. Staying in his demon form allowed him to stay away from everyone. He would’ve stayed away longer, but he had seen two Shujin students at the park, and they had been talking and laughing about getting to hurt at least Ryuji, and his anger had boiled over again. He had even meant to give chase once they started running, but the route they were taking had too many people, and Akira didn’t want even more people to see him this way. 

Instead, he had hidden in a tree, and his heart had ached when he saw Ryuji looking around and calling out to him. He had followed him home, and had waited until Ryuji was about to go to sleep again before coming over. 

He was glad he had come over, now, though. Ryuji had started to rub his back, and he started relaxing, a happy trill leaving his mouth this time. He should’ve known he had nothing to fear when it came to his boyfriend. Everything they had gone through together, and he had been worried about what he was? He should’ve stayed and explained, but everything had happened so suddenly. 

Staying awake for the entire week was another thing he had done. He didn’t sleep well in his demon form, and he had been too concerned about being seen. He rested his head against Ryuji’s shoulder, his eyes slipping shut. Another happy, relaxed trill came from him as he started falling asleep. Ryuji said something soft in his ear, but he didn’t hear what it was. The blond boy had started gently scratching behind his horns, and it felt _so good._ He felt himself slowly but surely falling fast asleep.  
~~

The next morning, Akira and Ryuji both woke up on Ryuji’s floor. They both sat up and stretched. After they did, they looked at each other. 

“You’re….back,” Ryuji said bluntly. Akira started looking himself over. Sure enough, he was back to his normal self, and he couldn’t be happier. 

“Yeah, I am,” he said softly. 

“So. You wanna-”

“I should’ve told you,” Akira interrupted Ryuji. Ryuji blinked. “I should’ve told you as soon as we started getting serious. But, I was so afraid of what you’d think. That’s why….why I told you stay out of my room. I can shift just fine between my two forms, but I don’t like to. Not everyone….not everyone likes having a shapeshifting demon around,” Akira said, staring at Ryuji’s floor. He had had enough bad memories to know that. 

“‘Kira…,” Ryuji said softly, placing a hand on Akira’s shoulder. 

“I can’t control my shifting when I’m angry. It doesn’t help that I was already thinking of shifting to go look for you, when you came in limping,” Akira said. 

“Then, I wasn’t imaginin’ things when we had to deal with the consequences of that damn detective’s actions. I saw your eyes go red, and thought I was losin’ my damn mind,” Ryuji said. 

“I shifted that night when everyone went home. It’s always my eyes that change first,” Akira admitted. 

“I kinda….told the others what I saw after ya ran, so, ya might have ta show them later,” Ryuji admitted. Akira sighed, and put his arms around Ryuji. “You ain’t mad I told ‘em?” Ryuji asked. 

“How could I ever be mad at you, Ryu?” Akira asked, giving him a smile.


End file.
